Table 2.

Association between parental age at birth and absolute telomere length (LTL) at age 53 and 60–64 and with annual changes in telomere length between 53 and 60–64.

Per year age increase	Model 1			Model 2			Model 3
	Percent difference	95% CI	p-value	Percent difference	95% CI	p-value	Percent difference	95% CI	p-value
Full sample (N = 2162)
LTL at age 53 (%)
Father's age	0.29	0.05 to 0.49	0.02	0.26	0.04 to 0.49	0.02	0.52	0.16 to 0.87	0.004
Mother's age	0.10	−0.14 to 0.35	0.82	0.09	−0.16 to 0.34	0.48	−0.37	−0.76 to 0.04	0.07
Sample with repeat LTL measures (N = 897)
LTL at age 53a (%)
Father's age	0.38	0.03 to 0.73	0.03	0.33	−0.02 to 0.70	0.07	0.90	0.32 to 1.49	0.003
Mother's age	0.08	−0.31 to 0.47	0.67	−0.003	−0.40 to 0.40	0.98	−0.80	−1.44 to −0.14	0.02
LTL at age 60–64 (%)
Father's age	0.09	−0.22 to 0.39	0.57	0.09	−0.21 to 0.40	0.55	0.16	−0.34 to 0.65	0.54
Mother's age	0.09	−0.24 to 0.42	0.52	0.05	−0.29 to 0.39	0.78	−0.09	−0.64 to 0.46	0.75
Annual change in LTLb (% per year)
Father's age	0.008	−0.02 to 0.04	0.63	0.007	−0.03 to 0.04	0.69	0.01	−0.04 to 0.07	0.69
Mother's age	0.008	−0.03 to 0.04	0.67	0.004	−0.03 to 0.04	0.85	−0.006	−0.07 to 0.05	0.84

Model 1: Adjusted for sex.

Model 2: Adjusted for sex and father's social class, father's education and mother's education, region, history of parental smoking.

Model 3: Father's and mother's age at birth included in the same model and adjusted for sex and father's social class, father's education and mother's education, region, history of parental smoking.

^aAnalysis limited to those with second measurements of LTL at age 60–64.

^bAdditionally adjusted for LTL at age 53.